I must come clean: a few days ago I broke down and subscribed to Times Select. Why? Well, a big part of my job is knowing what's in the editorial pages around the country and, like it or not, The Times is still fairly influential.

That and I missed tracking the deterioration of Dowd, Herbert and especially Krugman into tinfoil hat lunacy during the Bush administration. It's been the editorial equivalent of a slow motion car crash 6 times a week for the last 5 years and frankly, I found myself unable to look away with three solid years of carnage left. Perhaps this was the hidden brillance of the Times Select strategy all along. All I know is that my $49.95 fate was sealed the day Scooter Libby got indicted and I have not been disappointed (I'm still on the "14 day free trial" so technically I've got an out).

Yesterday David Brooks wrote a blistering satire of Harry Reid. Today Paul Krugman followed with one of his own on the Bush administration. In the spirit of a Friday afternoon at the end of a long week, I hereby present, "Dueling Satires." Cue the banjo music from Deliverance:

Brooks: Harry Reid sits alone at his kitchen table at 4 a.m., writing important notes in crayon on the outside of envelopes. It's been four weeks since he launched his personal investigation into the Republican plot to manipulate intelligence to trick the American people into believing Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Krugman: Hans Christian Andersen understood bad rulers. "The Emperor's New Suit" doesn't end with everyone acclaiming the little boy for telling the truth. It ends with the emperor and his officials refusing to admit their mistake. I've laid my hands on additional material, which Andersen failed to publish, describing what happened after the imperial procession was over.

Brooks: It has been four weeks since he [Reid] began investigating this conspiracy and three weeks since he sealed his windows with aluminum foil to ward off the Illuminati. Odd patterns now leap into his brain. Scooter Libby was born near a book depository but was indicted while at a theater. Karl Rove reads books from book depositories but rarely has time for the theater.

Krugman: Fox News repeatedly played up possible finds of imperial clothing, then buried reports discrediting these stories. Months after the naked procession, a poll found that many of those getting most of their news from Fox believed that the emperor had in fact been clothed.

Brooks: Harry Reid sits alone at his kitchen table at 4 a.m. Odd thoughts rush through his brain. He cannot trust the letter "r," so he must change his name to Hawwy Weed. Brian Lamb secretly rules the world by manipulating the serial numbers on milk cartons.

Krugman: After the naked procession, pro-wardrobe pundits denied that the emperor was at fault. The blame, they said, rested with the C.I.A., which had provided the emperor with bad intelligence about the potential for a suit.

Brooks: Reid realizes there is only one solution: "Must call a secret session of the Senate. Must expose global conspiracy to sap vital juices! Must expose Republican plot to manipulate intelligence!" Harry Reid sits alone at his kitchen table at 4 a.m.

Krugman: Two and a half years after the emperor's naked procession, a majority of citizens believed that the imperial administration had deliberately misled the country. Several former officials had gone public with tales of an administration obsessed with its wardrobe from Day 1. But apologists for the emperor continued to dismiss any suggestion that officials had lied to the nation. It was, they said, a crazy conspiracy theory. After all, back in 1998 Bill Clinton thought there was a suit.